They also work nicely on the Bally/Stern solenoid driver boards. I've gotten a couple of older boards running again by using the psu5. You can't get the LM323K regulators any more, unless you want to get one from Digi-key for $71.17 each. https://www.digikey.com/en/products/detail/texas-instruments/LM323K-STEEL-NOPB/6200

Where the hell is Poly-Paks when we need them? There was usually an LM323 in their $1 grab bags...

POLY-PAKS that is a name I have not heard of in decades

While "PolyPaks" is long gone, James Electronics (now Jameco) is still alive...

This one is pretty good. The previous owner of this game must have thought there shouldn’t be a groove in the shooter lane so they filled it in with bondo. Luckily they knew about as much about prepping a surface for bondo as they do pinball so I will be able to chip this crap out.

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Back when Digi-Key's entire product line would barely fill 4 pages! Look at them now.

The “Bondo-shooter lane” is amazing!
Most of the things in this thread are about crappy fixes to things that ARE broken.
Not this one-
There nothing to fix and it works great… lets fill it in so it looks shity!

So did they bondo over the switch that closes the gate? Does the gate work? I would think the gate would open and never close.

WOW!!!

You Sir, won the Internet (today)!

Please post a picture when you get the bondo out. Curious what shape shooter lane is in underneath.

Got most of it removed by just prying it off. The thinner stuff near the top of the groove is a little more difficult but the shooter lane is fine. Switch and gate work and at this point I have the game almost completely working. I just need to look at the score reals because they are not all finding zero and will let the game start without all in the zero position.

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I was wondering if it was in fine shape, or if it was filled because it was a worn out mess - looks pretty darn good to me!

Thanks for posting.

No problem with making your own leg protection, but now you have added screw holes . And the underneath was not out of the normal wear and tear...

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Also no structural damage.

A continuation from Time Warp repair. Repair spokesman took a seemingly good deal of time to solder on a 40 pin socket directly onto existing 6821 PIA .

Seems like double the work ...PIA, socket in hand. Remove bad one first.

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F14 TomCat , missing plastic-just use two slingshot plastics.....

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I mean I have seen worse. It gets style points that’s for sure

This should be in a creative solutions thread.

Gotta agree..... that actually doesn't look bad.

Gilligan hack. They put this round target on . Problem was the ramp would catch on it so the little down ramp coil burnt up trying to go down repeatedly.
Lots of effort to install this target as it had ton reassembled in pieces as it was too big to go through the pf.
Third pic is lamp socket removed before removing switch.

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A couple of interesting micro switch levers that I found on 2 different machines this week.

Like the creativity. External springs are better. Less dust and wear.

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Figured I would add this here. Apollo start button mount plate busted in. They rotated it and screwed it back in (with 4 different screws? One brass!) and then added a screw touching the back of the switch to block it from happening again?

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If one nail won’t hold the chime pin, you can always use two!

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This is one of Vid’s tips in his guide to rebuilding flippers. I’ve done this to a few games and highly recommend it! https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/vids-guide-to-upgradingrebuilding-flippers/page/11#post-1855104

This pic from Vid's link shows an added bracket screwed down to the flipper lever.

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Or is there something else you are referring to?

STTNG I just picked up a little coin door mod…

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Someone put a tensioner? on this stepper unit that was supposed to be free turning (no home position). Pretty easy to figure out why the coil was roasted. It melted the wheel too.

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Was chasing down a locked relay and start-up problem with a Bally EM. Found this wedged under a row of Jones sockets.

Attempt at a free-play hack? Sloppy repair? Sabatoge?

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I would guess that it something that was snipped off at some point during a repair, it fell to the bottom of the cab, then maybe tumbled and got wedged when the game was tipped up on end at some point.

Looks like for Token use at a particular arcade.

Just got this Cyclone blown out playfield but actually pretty clean an solid game; however, here are a few things found in an currently on the game…

Shooter rod found in side the game:

Backup battery (just one)?

My all time favorite hack to date: bad relay=tweezers

Oh an the runner up… bondo flipper…

Also looking for a mystery wheel and or decal to start the restoration…

Yes all in one game….
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Odd that that battery case looks like it can hold 3 AA cells, but it was used to put in place of one cell on the board. Hope that either there's only one cell in it, or three in parallel for the correct voltage.

got to say the bondo flipper takes some imagination......seriously new flippers are cheap..

Back in the old days, were these things easy to get ahold of? I'm spoiled by the internet, were there mail order systems for this? Direct from the manufacturer?

Yes, Steve at PBR has been around since 1977! I’ve come across plenty of games that operators replaced the flippers! Even some of the most clueless ops knew how to buy new flippers. This guy was somehow lazy and very creative and dedicated to being so incredibly wrong.

Maybe it was a re-import and it was harder to get parts from overseas.

Best guess is this was a home user who didn't know any better. The flipper broke and they probably said "I can fix that" not knowing how cheep and readily available the parts are.

An operator would throw any old flipper on there and get it back up and running.

Not a reimport the game came from Texas. I believe it was from a storage unit.

Not the worst but a pain getting the legs off

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Someone ran a wood screw into the bracket which is still in there.

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LOL!

Here’s what’s really funny…

The correct coil I needed (29-1000) came with a previous game that came in for repair which was provided for me to repair zipper flipper on Doozie. Turns out they bought the wrong coils which is why it kept burning up so the last 29-1000 was perfect for this game and saved me another order with Steve Young.

But now I have two more EMs for myself as of this morning so now it’s time to place another order.

I guess that was to keep anyone from stealing the legs.

That reminds me of my Atlantis backbox panel. Someone really beefed it up. Maybe people wanted free games. Regular one on the left for reference
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That's the pinball equivalent of shooting yourself in the foot. The only thing that would make it better is knowing he did it while the game was powered up, so he immediately realized that he made a bad decision (and possibly needed a ride to the hospital). Either way, dude should get some kind of award. That's an epic fail. Thanks for sharing.

I’ve seen worse hacks, but this is the one I’m dealing with today.

This rectifier board was in a game I picked up recently. It’s rare that aftermarket boards arrive on my bench hacked up, but this one is fun. It must have been an early revision from Rottendog as it has the incorrect part number screened on it… BPS054 is for late model Bally games, but this one is for early SS titles.

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It looks more or less fine from the front. It was probably a kit, as whoever assembled it decided to skip a bunch of parts and reuse others from an older board. What gets really screwy are the bridge rectifiers:

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I almost didn’t believe what I was seeing until I took a look at the PCB: rottendog laid it out so that AC enters on the right side of the rectifier, and DC comes out the left side. If you’re unfamiliar with GBPC rectifier layouts, the AC inputs are at opposite corners, and the DC outputs are also at opposite corners. The PCB itself is laid out incorrectly!

I’m not okay “just living” with a board that’s missing parts and requires bodging. This will be the first aftermarket board I’ve ever thrown out. I ordered a replacement from barakandl and I’ll just build it the right way myself.

Maybe it was meant to have the rectifiers mounted on the other side?

Nope; it's got the offset through-hole for what would normally the DC positive pin on a GBPC , but it's connected to the DC ground plane.

And if you try to insert a rectifier from the rear into that form factor, it won't actually fit unless you bend legs.

From above, the GBPC form factor has this pinout:

.............( AC )
( + )..............
( AC )......( - )

But this rectifier board PCB traces are run like this:

.............( AC )
( - )..............
( + )......( AC )

Front mounted or back mounted, it still ain't right.

The way that they've made it work here is to rotate the rectifiers 90 degrees counter clockwise, and then crossover only the two legs now on top. It works, but it's a total bodge.